HB 241
Bill Information House Bill 241: AN ACT relating to Kentucky Retirement Systems Sponsor: Brent Yonts Date Introduced: 01/13/2016 Final Resolution: Bill Summary Amend KRS 16.505 to clarify that lump-sum payments or nonrecurring payments provided to members of the State Police Retirement System (SPRS) shall, as determined by the board, be credited when earned or classified as a lump-sum bonus and averaged over the career of the member as it relates to "creditable compensation"; clarify that for members entering SPRS on or after September 1, 2008, compensatory time payments excluded from "creditable compensation" shall apply to lump-sum compensatory time payments; amend the definition of "final compensation" to utilize partial fiscal years in determining the final compensation of a member who began participating in SPRS on or after September 1, 2008, but prior to January 1, 2014, in situations where the member does not have three complete fiscal years of service; make technical and clerical amendments; amend KRS 16.582 to remove language which prohibited an injury or disease resulting from military service from being considered a disabling condition for hazardous members of Kentucky Retirement Systems; amend KRS 16.642 to clarify that the board of trustees shall have the power to invest SPRS funds in the same fashion as KERS funds under KRS 61.650; amend KRS 61.510 and 78.510 to utilize partial fiscal years in determining the final compensation of a member who began participating in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) and the County Employees Retirement System (CERS) on or after September 1, 2008, but prior to January 1, 2014, in situations where the member does not have the required three (hazardous) or five (nonhazardous) complete fiscal years of service; clarify that lump-sum payments or nonrecurring payments shall, as determined by the board, be credited when earned or classified as a lump-sum bonus and averaged over the career of the member as it relates to "creditable compensation"; provide that interim positions in KERS and probationary positions in CERS shall not be renewable by the employer for the same employee unless the employee has not been employed by the agency for 12 months; clarify that for members entering KERS or CERS on or after September 1, 2008, compensatory time payments excluded from "creditable compensation" shall apply to lump-sum compensatory time payments; make technical and clerical amendments; amend KRS 61.542 to remove the requirement that the estate be designated as beneficiary of a member's account when he or she requests a refund of contributions prior to retirement; provide that the member's estate shall be beneficiary of his or her account from Kentucky Retirement Systems if prior to retirement the member fails to designate a beneficiary or the beneficiary designation is found to be void; provide that a beneficiary shall not be changed on or after the first day of the month in which a retired employee begins receiving retirement benefits; provide that reemployed retirees who establish a second retirement account will have their estate named beneficiary if they fail to designate a beneficiary for their new account; amend KRS 61.545 to remove provisions allowing a member who is simultaneously eligible for participation in more than one retirement system administered by Kentucky Retirement Systems to select participation in only one system; make conforming amendments; amend KRS 61.552 to clarify and conform to federal law the payment options available to members for purchasing service credit; remove service purchase provisions no longer applicable to current members; require agencies who fail to report employees to the retirement system to pay penalties and interest on employer contributions from the date the contributions should have been reported to the system; make technical amendments; amend KRS 61.555 to provide that the service credit that is granted without cost to employees who are called to active duty military deployment shall be limited to those whose rights to such benefits have not been terminated under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA); require employees participating in the hybrid cash balance plan on or after January 1, 2014, who are called to active duty military deployment to pay their employee contributions if they are granted service credit, as required by USERRA, for the period of active duty deployment; require employers to make contributions for service credited to employees who are called to active duty military deployment as required by USERRA; make conforming amendments; amend KRS 61.557 to make technical amendments; amend KRS 61.560 to clarify that retirees reemployed on or after September 1, 2008, shall not pay into the systems and to make conforming amendments; amend KRS 61.590 to make technical changes and to clarify that a retiring employee must separate employment with all participating system employers; amend KRS 61.645 to allow the Kentucky Retirement Systems board to promulgate an administrative regulation to conduct trustee elections by electronic ballot; amend KRS 61.650 to increase the Kentucky Retirement Systems investment committee membership from five to seven trustees and to make technical amendments; amend KRS 61.680 to provide for consolidation of accounts with other state-administered retirement systems only if the member retires simultaneously from all state-administered retirement systems or retires from the other state-administered retirement systems within one month of retiring from the systems administered by Kentucky Retirement Systems; make technical amendments; amend KRS 61.702 to require Medicare-eligible retirees who are reemployed with an employer offering a group health plan to enroll in that plan in lieu of the KRS health plans; define "monthly contribution rate"; require a recipient or the spouse or dependent children of a recipient of a retirement allowance, who is eligible to participate in Medicare to participate in the plans administered by the systems for Medicare-eligible recipients; provide that a member who retired prior to July 1, 2003, who has established a second retirement account shall not receive more than the monthly contribution rate for retiree health benefits: make technical amendments; amend KRS 78.790 to clarify that the board of trustees shall have the power to invest CERS funds in the same fashion as KERS funds under KRS 61.650; amend KRS 16.520, 61.525, 61.526, 61.5525, 61.592, 78.540, 78.610, and 78.615 to make technical and conforming amendments; provide noncodified sections to provide that the successor of the additional board trustee elected by CERS that was added by SB 2 in the 2013 Regular Session shall be elected in the same period as all other CERS trustees in 2017 and shall have a shortened term from 2017 to 2021 to coincide with all other future CERS trustee terms of office; state that amendments to KRS 16.642 and 78.790 are made to conform to amendments made to KRS 61.650 in 2002 to show intent to apply KRS 61.650 changes to SPRS and CERS. Amendments